Ash Ketchum: Dragon Rider
by Xyrule
Summary: My version of the Inheritance Cycle, written for Pokemon.
1. Desperate Measures

**Before we begin, I should tell you that this is not the original, and will include parts that aren't in the book and erase others. Some new plot twists shall occur, since I wanted to add my own ideas into it. Keep in mind that it's been months since I read Brisingr, and even longer since I read the others. Thank you for your attention, and we will begin.**

A girl who looks about 17 or 18 runs through the forest, clutching a strange object in her arms.

A projectile shoots past her, missing her face by inches and embedding itself in a tree. She looks back with an expression of terror. That is her mistake. She trips on a root and falls.

The leader of her pursuers seizes the opportunity, and she cries out as pain racks her body, reaching into every cell, every molecule within her.

She collapses, and her pursuers catch up to her. They want the object she is guarding.

She won't let them take it. As she fades into unconsciousness, she uses the last of her power. The object is engulfed in a bright light, then is gone.

The leader of her pursuers stops in front of her, clearly intensely angry. He kicks her face, and everything goes black.


	2. Ash

''Ash Ketchum, get over here right now!'' Red Johnsson yelled.

''Coming!'' a black-haired teenager, around 14 or 15, called, returning the frog he was holding to its pond and running up to his adoptive father.

''You know that your duties come first.'' Red growled. ''You have to collect firewood, tend to the farm, and collect food. Why do you never understand that? I took you in when you were a baby. You could at least be more than a burden to me.''

Ash shrugged off the insults. Fifteen years earlier, his mother had arrived in Darna, heavily pregnant and deathly ill. She had been taken care of, but she had died giving birth to Ash. The only thing he knew about her was her name: Delia. Red had seen him as a future assistant in his and his son's, Jason, duties. When he found that Ash often did anything other than work, he hated the boy with no limits.

Ash had been given his nickname of ''Ketchum'' because he often liked to catch the wild animals that lived around the village. He was a very imaginative boy, and was forever inventing new strategies of doing things, things that benefited the entire village. Red was too thickheaded to consider this, though.

However, Jason Redsson liked Ash. He listened when Ash told him stories that he had been told by the annual wandering merchants. He helped him work when he wasn't strong enough to do it himself. He stood up for him when Red yelled at and insulted him.

''Okay.'' Ash said, walking to the forest near the village. This forest was part of a huge mountain range that ran through the entire west coast of the country of Pokelantis, the largest country on the continent and the known world. Pokelantis was ruled by a cruel and ultrapowerful man named Nemesis. His power was beyond that of any magician, both mentally and physically, and he had something that no other had. He was the last Dragon Rider.

The Dragon Riders were a race of superstrong and extremely long-lived humans and Erill who had a special connection with dragons.

Dragons were the second-oldest and most powerful species on the continent. Each Rider had an intimate connection with one of the dragons. They could think and act as one, and make choices with more views than most. Their strength was unparalleled.

The Riders and their dragons served as protectors of Pokelantis, stopping attacks and driving inner conflict away.

They ruled peacefully with the Erill country of Karkhoul and the Stoneworker country of Eroth for thousands of years.

That all changed when one of their own turned against them.

The traitor was named Nemesis, a name that may seem suspicious, but before him, ''nemesis'' actually meant ''friend''.

Nemesis collected twenty followers, who became known as the Fallen by everyone else.

Nemesis and the Fallen killed every Rider they met, destroying the peace within a few years.

Nemesis took control over Pokemopolis, taking absolute power everywhere. He was turned evil because his first dragon, Katara, was killed in battle, and he was determined to direct his revenge on the entire country. He forced a dragon egg to hatch for him, and he turned the hatchling's mind so that it was as twisted and evil as his own. He named the grey dragon Shrui-Kyurem. He and Shrui-Kyurem gained immense powers, powers so enormous that he could spread his evil almost anywhere. Luckily for the other countries, including one that seceded from Pokelantis called ''Palmo'', Nemesis wasn't as interested with collecting land as he was with collecting power.

However, no matter how much Nemesis tried, there was one area in Pokelantis that he couldn't control. That was the mountain range that spanned the west coast of the continent. It was called the ''Barrier'', and anyone who went in never went out.

Everyone, that is except for Ash. He went in daily, collecting what he needed without hindrance from the mysterious mountain range.

This was the range that contained the forest he was entering now.

After Ash had collected what he needed, he prepared to return to Darna.

As he turned around and began to walk, a huge, bright flash knocked him over.

When it faded, he laid still on his back for a few seconds, paralyzed from the sudden pain in his back, then he got up.

There, resting on the forest floor a few feet away from him, sat a strange, polished red stone.


End file.
